and the darkness rained upon them
by Meer-Katnip
Summary: And because he's Skulduggery, she believes him, even though she can't imagine how it possibly will be. It's 2008, and the world is ending. (Skulduggery and Valkyrie in the Year That Never Was)


**Trigger warnings for character death(s) and a bit of mental trauma. Enjoy. Or not.**

* * *

_Boink._

_Boink._

Valkyrie throws the little rubber ball against the concrete floor for the umpteenth time. It's honestly getting a bit tedious, but it isn't as if she has anything better to do. She sits back against the cold warehouse wall. Waiting.

_God,_ her leg hurts.

_Boink._

She shivers and draws her jacket tightly about her, hoping to stave off at least a bit of the cold. It isn't working. A frigid gust of wind spins its way into the large, empty room, chilling her to the bone. Valkyrie clicks her fingers, summoning a tiny spark of flame, and huddles close to it. With the other hand, she throws the ball against the opposite wall again.

_Boink._

She _hates _this. Sitting in an abandoned storage unit on the edge of Dublin, not being able to do anything to help her friends. She's been shoved aside like a child, not allowed to take care of herself.

_Boink._

Well, okay, there's an _actual _reason. But it's easier to be mad at Skulduggery than to admit that he's right.

She tucks her legs up to her chest, and shivers again. It's their fifth night on the run since the attacks started, and it's not getting any easier. Skulduggery's gone out to get news, while she's 'holding the fort', so to speak.

Not that there's much of a fort to hold.

The other reason that she's sitting here in this dusty old warehouse is that her right leg's currently fractured in two places. She can't walk without nearly screaming, and flying with Skulduggery would be a bit too conspicuous.

_Boink._

A noise, outside. She tenses, closing her hand on the flame, and holding onto her little rubber ball tightly. _Was it one of them? What would she do if it was?_

The door creaks open, and Valkyrie sags in relief. "Don't _do _that, Skulduggery. You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"I aim to please," he replies softly, closing it behind him and stepping close to her. She brings back the fire again, setting the rubber ball on the ground.

"Any news?" she asks, pushing herself up, wincing slightly at the pain in her leg. He's silent. Even though skeletons don't have facial expressions, she knows how to read him. "Something happened, didn't it?"

He gives her a short, curt nod. "They killed China."

She stifles a gasp. "China? Are you sure? But-" She had considered China Sorrows an ally, if not a friend, and it just didn't _feel right _that she'd be dead, it couldn't be, it had to be some kind of trick or Skulduggery making a joke or-

But he doesn't laugh. It isn't some sick form of humor. China really _is _dead.

He sits next to her, pulling a pack of beef jerky out of his coat pocket and handing it to her. "The Sanctuary fell last night. Most of the sorcerers are dead or on the run too."

"Ghastly?" She tears into the pack eagerly. She's _starving._

"Fletcher grabbed him and teleported him out before they could. There's been no sign of them since."

Well, that's at least _one _bit of good news. She chews thoughtfully on one particularly tough piece of beef. "What do they want? They just swooped down out of the sky, and attacked."

He sighs. "There's been a television announcement. You do know who Harold Saxon is?"

Her fingers tap out four beats on the cold concrete floor. "Yeah, isn't he the Prime Minister or something?" She repeats the rhythm again, without really noticing it.

He grabs her hand with his. "Why do you think that?"

"Does it matter?" She tries to pull away from him. "I was just thinking, if I ever moved to London, I'd vote for him. He seems like a nice guy."

He presses his hand over hers, flattening out her fingers. "A _nice guy _who is currently attempting to enslave the whole of Earth with the electronic balls."

She freezes. "Wait, _what?_"

He releases her, leaning back. "He's not a sorcerer, they've confirmed that, at least. He's the one behind the attacks. He announced it himself. The balls are called 'Toclafane'. Does that explain everything?"

"Not really, no."

The buzzing and whirring of the metal balls makes Valkyrie close her hand on the flame once again. "They're here," she breathes.

"Hold on." He fiddles in his pocket, and holds out the cloaking sphere, which quickly envelops them. He loops her arm over his shoulder, and they awkwardly get up.

They move out of the warehouse, and down the street, past the rows of Toclafane that don't notice them at all.

* * *

The next week passes in a blitz of running, fighting and hiding. Valkyrie's leg gradually heals, and soon she can run and move at the same speed as Skulduggery. It's a great relief to both of them. They're in the empty attic of a house that had been hurriedly left behind by its owners. Or maybe they've died.

Valkyrie tries very hard not to think about that.

Skulduggery knows that she has to sleep, which was a fault reserved for those who were still living. He usually keeps watch or meditates during these times, while she curls up on the ground, trying to find a soft spot.

Tonight, she lies flat on her back, staring at the ceiling. She notes that there was a spider dangling from a thread. It looks fat, probably from all of the flies that were inevitable around here. Maybe it would fall on her.

A thought comes to her.

"Skulduggery," she says slowly.

His clothes rustle as he turns from his position at the window, and looks at her.

"What happened to my parents? And Alice?"

She can't imagine why she would just leave them to go running off with her partner, even if it was an emergency. She plays idly with a strand of long dark hair, while she waited for him to answer.

"You don't remember," he says after a moment.

"I don't remember what?"

And now she know something was wrong, because he's tilting his head at her in that way of his, and straightening his hat.

"Skulduggery, _what happened?_"

And somehow she knows, without quite realizing it, that her family is dead, that they were killed in the first attack, and now she's all alone. And now all she's got is Skulduggery.

Her best friend.

She folds down into herself, sobbing uncontrollably. She doesn't care about running and fighting anymore. All that matters is that she'll never hold her baby sister again. She'll never be able to listen to her dad crack another stupid, _stupid _joke, or talk with her mom about boys.

They're just gone. And she didn't even remember it until a minute ago.

It takes her a while to register that two bony arms are wrapped around her. It's comforting. Her sobs slow, and she sits quietly in the darkness, hunched over, with Skulduggery hugging her.

"I thought," he tells her. "that you were taking it far too well."

She cracks a watery smile. "Sorry."

"You don't have anything to be sorry for, Valkyrie."

She starts crying all over again.

"It's okay," he soothes, and because he's Skulduggery, she believes him, even though she can't imagine how it possibly will be. It's 2008, and the world is ending.

* * *

The next day, they meet Martha Jones. She's a nice person. Valkyrie doesn't always like nice people. They try to make her behave.

Valkyrie is still broken and shattered inside.

Valkyrie Cain quite likes Martha Jones.

She tells them stories about her very best friend in the universe, who saves the world with her, and is funny and clever and supportive and always knows just what to say to cheer her up.

"Sounds a bit like you," she says to Skulduggery. He doesn't say anything, but she knows he's smiling.

Martha doesn't even blink at the fact that Skulduggery is a skeleton. She doesn't stare, she just asks politely how he stays together, and if he knows that his ribs are fractured on one side, and if it hurts.

He tell her, in order, "magic, yes, and terribly."

She nods, and explains that she's a nurse. She shows Valkyrie how to fix him up. She's very impressed that they can do magic.

Martha is travelling the world to collect parts for a special weapon that will defeat Harold Saxon. She keeps on a brave face for the world, but tells Valkyrie while they're eating their bread scrounged from shops, that she's very scared.

Valkyrie hugs her.

"Don't worry," she says. "I'm terrified."

Before Martha continues on her way, she tells them to think of one very specific word, at a very specific time. "You'll know when," she says. "Think of 'Doctor'."

Valkyrie is sceptical. "How can one word help?"

Skulduggery pats her shoulder. "Words have power, Valkyrie."

She thinks of Darquesse, and nods. Martha waves goodbye, and sets off on her way, key draped around her neck, canvas satchel around her neck.

* * *

They keep traveling north. Sometimes they stay at refugee camps, and when they do that, Skulduggery has to put up his facade.

Valkyrie talks to the younger children, and tells them not to give up hope, even though she feels like giving up hope herself. Every visit to camps makes her feel more and more empty, and eventually she keeps to herself, not talking to anyone except for Skulduggery. He's the only one who can make her smile.

One day, Fletcher appears in front of them, making Valkyrie cry out and stumble back in shock. She's gotten used to not seeing any sort of magic anymore.

Fletcher looks horrible. His shirt is ripped, and his face is smeared with dirt. Valkyrie probably doesn't look any better, though. His hair is still stupid, she notices.

"I've brought news," he says to Skulduggery. "He's burnt Japan."

"What do you mean, burnt!" Valkyrie exclaims. "You can't just burn a set of islands-"

"He can, apparently. Everyone died."

_Everyone died..._Valkyrie feels sick. The worst bit it knowing that there's nothing she can do about it.

"Everyone," he adds. "Except for one."

"Who?" Skulduggery asks.

"Someone called Martha Jones. She's not a sorcerer, but she's practically the leader of the resistance."

Valkyrie feels like cheering. She knew there was a reason she liked Martha Jones. But she manages to stop herself. "Why aren't the Sanctuaries fighting back?" she wonders instead.

"The Toclafane are magic-proof."

Skulduggery reacts instantly. "How does that work? I thought this Harold Saxon was mortal."

"He is," Fletcher clarifies. "But he's not human."

He's about to say more when a swarm of Toclafane swoop down behind him, and reduce him to a corpse. Skulduggery throws up the cloaking sphere instantly, and holds tight to Valkyrie, who's struggling to get to Fletcher's body.

"Why?" she chokes. "_Why?_"

It's because this 'Harold Saxon' is trying to scratch every sorcerer who ever wielded magic off the face of the Earth. Skulduggery knows this, but doesn't tell her.

* * *

They're moving around Ireland constantly, always hiding, always staying away. They hear stories about Martha, about her rebellion, about her stories.

They're still Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain, the unstoppable duo. They still try to make each other smile, and trade witty remarks. It's with less enthusiasm than before, though.

Valkyrie's broken just a bit more.

One day, they run into a girl with red hair that would usually be shining brightly, brighter than sunflowers. Instead, it's dull and lanky. She has the look of someone who's lost all hope, except a tiny bit that she keeps clinging on to.

She tells them about the Raggedy Man that crashed into her garden a lifetime ago, and how he fixed the crack in her wall, and how five minutes turned into fourteen years. She doesn't tell them her name, but when she turns to go to her husband, they can see that she's utterly broken.

Just like Valkyrie.

Skulduggery rests his hands on her shoulders. They seem to be getting a lot more touchy-feely lately.

At that camp far underground, they meet others who tell them stories that would probably be nonsensical and childish to anyone else. But not to them.

They meet the woman who had been hypnotised many, many times over on her travels, and had a son. _Had _being the operative word. She had lost him in the first wave of attacks.

"I used to be a defender of the Earth," she says mournfully, staring into the fire. "My kids... they were amazing. And then I lost it all in a day."

Valkyrie scoots close to her, patting her awkwardly. "Don't worry. We were too." She throws a quick glance at Skulduggery, who's sitting silently, watching them.

She looks up with something close to hope in her eyes. "Did you know the Doctor?"

"No," she admits. Not wanting to see a look of despair on the woman's face, she splays her fingers against the air, which snaps back, flattening a small pile or rocks into dust.

"Magic," she says, grinning properly for the first time in months. Screw the rules. She's allowed to see an expression of pure delight on the woman's face. It reminds her that not all people are complete and utter jerks anymore.

They move on, both feeling slightly lighter.

Valkyrie makes a snarky comment later on, and she knows that Skulduggery is smiling.

They should've known it couldn't last.

* * *

Eventually, there is a point when they're completely closed in by the small spheres that seem so innocent outwardly. They're under the cloaking sphere, but they can't break through without being detected.

He looks at her, and she knows what he's planning. "No!"

"You'll be fine on your own," he tells her, taking off his battered but somehow neat hat, and handing it to her. "Here, take this. And for God's sake, _run_."

She grabs his arm, wrenching him back. "Skulduggery, don't do it. I'm not worth it."

He takes the hat from her, and places it on her head carefully, then bends down to see her better. "You _are _worth it, Valkyrie Cain."

A tear slips down her face. "I can do it instead."

He shakes his head, straightens his jacket, and takes the skeletal equivalent of a deep breath. "Maybe I'll come back again," he murmurs to himself. "Maybe the universe will be kind."

"You _know _you won't," she yells, knowing that the Toclafane won't hear her. "Skulduggery, _please-_"

He tucks the cloaking sphere in her pocket, and hugs her one last time. "Live," he tells her simply.

And he steps out of the protective bubble.

The Toclafane rotate to view him properly, and begin to fire lasers at him. He dodges them easily, and darts to the side. And then one catches him full in the chest.

Valkyrie prays to the God that she doesn't believe in that he'll use Earth to be a statue. Hell, even a _stone _Skulduggery would be better than nothing. But he doesn't. He's reduced to a pile of dust and a single bone that rests on top.

She vomits, and the Toclafane don't notice because she's in the shield. She has the sudden, inexplicable urge to drop the cloaking ball on the ground and run out so she can die too. She's lost her parents, Fletcher, China, practically everyone, and now she's lost Skulduggery too.

But then she remembers his last word to her. _Live._

She runs through the gap that he's cleared, tears blinding her sight.

She runs hard and long and fast, wanting to get away from everything, wanting to wake up with Skulduggery standing over her, telling her it was just a bad dream, and then laughing at her.

She wouldn't even mind if he laughed at her at this point. He would be alive.

_He's gone._

* * *

Valkyrie goes insane for a while. Her mind drops out, and she wanders around aimlessly. It's only by pure luck that she doesn't run into anyone. She's empty, numb, and wishes that anyone was there. Even someone that she'd usually hate.

Feeling nothing was supposed to be bad, wasn't it? Shouldn't she feel something?

When she comes back to her senses, she's lying down on the ground, wrapped in a blanket. Someone's sitting nearby, reading a book_._ She hasn't seen a book for so long that she nearly doesn't recognise it.

She tries to speak, but a pathetic croaking noise comes out instead. The person turns around. He's young, and has a neat tweed jacket with sees that he has a bow tie on.

But that's not the first thing she notices.

She notices that Skulduggery's hat is lying next to him. She reaches out, takes it, and holds it close to her chest.

"Ah, hello," he says, setting the book down, and marking the page. "I was wondering when you were going to wake up, Valkyrie."

"Who are you?" she manages, even though she half doesn't care, because he's not Skulduggery.

He scrutinizes her, and she gets the feeling that he's looking directly into her soul. "I'm the Doctor, " he says carefully.

She doesn't ask _Doctor who?_, but just nods. She lies there on the hard dirt ground.

"I met your friend," she says after a moment. "Martha Jones."

He hums, and runs a cold finger along her arm. "You sprained your ankle," he tells her. "I had to fix it up."

"How are you here?" she murmurs. "You're trapped in that... place."

He smiles thinly. "I am. I'm also here. Martha told me that your friend is dead. That's why I'm here."

She blinks. There's still spots in her vision, but they aren't as bad. "You... don't know me."

"I don't." He slides the bookunder her hand. "But Martha told me about you. You're a remarkable young woman, Valkyrie Cain."

"You don't know me," she repeats.  
"That doesn't mean I don't care." His startlingly green eyes meet hers.

She wraps the blanket tighter about herself. "Thank you," she whispers. He smiles again.

"Martha says that you can do magic. _Real _magic."

She smiles back, snaps her fingers, and makes a small fire. It's an effort, but it's completely worth it for the flash of delight that steals across the Doctor's face.

"See?" he says. "Remarkable. I don't know many people that can do that."

She pushes the book back to him. "Here."

"It's yours." He lays a small bag of food on top of the thin volume. "Take care of yourself. It's going to be better soon."

She accepts the gift gratefully. "How do you know?"

"Because I've lived through it." The look in his eyes is of one that has been through many wars before. "Trust me. I'm the Doctor."

He stands up. "Goodbye, Valkyrie."

She sits upright. "Goodbye, Doctor."

He leaves, footsteps echoing down the road that they're on. She places Skulduggery's hat on her head, and opens the book that he gave her. There's an inscription in the front cover that says, 'To Valkyrie. _Hope is the thing with feathers- That perches in the soul- And sings the tunes without the words- And never stops-at all._'

She sighs happily at the first true comfort that she's had for nearly half a year.

_Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea..._

* * *

She travels on her own for a while, and meets Martha again. Martha doesn't ask where Skulduggery is; only holding Valkyrie while she sobs.

"Thank you," Valkyrie manages after a moment. Martha frown in confusion.

"Thank you for what?"

"For telling the Doctor."

Martha has a look of immense puzzlement on her face. "But... I haven't told the Doctor."

_I've lived through it._

Valkyrie doesn't say anything, even though she just realized that the Doctor is a time traveller. At any other time, this would have had her cheering and enthusing.

She's still broken.

Martha and Valkyrie stay together for a couple of days. They read chapters of Valkyrie's book together, and remember how to laugh.

"_Space is big,_" Valkyrie reads. "_You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space._"

Martha grins. "It really, really is!"

Later on, a quote from the book makes Valkyrie nearly crack again, because it sounds so much like something Skulduggery would say.

"_If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now,_" Martha laughs, not seeing the tear that trickles down Valkyrie's face.

But soon it's over, and Martha needs to go on alone. The two women hug, and Valkyrie tucks the book carefully into her bag, right next to Skulduggery's hat.

"Take care of yourself," Martha says, unconsciously echoing the Doctor.

Valkyrie nods, sighing out. "I'll try."

Martha leaves.

Valkyrie encases her heart in solid metal armour. She doesn't think she can stand any more.

* * *

She meets a woman called Ace, who's wearing a tight jacket that doesn't fit anymore, and has her hair tied back in a short ponytail.

They teach each other things.

Ace shows Valkyrie how to blow objects up with her own homemade explosive.

Valkyrie shows Ace how to set fire to objects. Ace has magic in her. She's an Elemental, just like Valkyrie, with a natural aptitude for fire.

They sneak around, blowing Toclafane out of the sky, and Valkyrie never smiles, not even once. Not even when they tackle twenty at a time, and win.

Valkyrie learns how to fly, quite by accident, when she falls off a building, tries to levitate herself down slowly, then suddenly _feels _the air currents, drifting around her, and she realizes how Skulduggery used to do it.

She swoops around for fifteen minutes, reveling in every part of it. She loves the fact that she can do it without Darquesse.

She wishes Skulduggery could be there to see her.

Ace is watching from the ground, amazed.

"Gordon Bennet," she says when Valkyrie lands. "You have _got _to teach me how to do that."

"If we ever get out of this," Valkyrie promises. "I'll teach _everyone _how to do it. It's amazing."

Ace nods.

A day later, she gets shot from behind by a Toclafane, and since Valkyrie's encased her heart, she doesn't cry. She buries Ace's remains under one of the few remaining trees, and sets a funeral pyre with the remaining explosives she has.

It's surprising how much satisfaction a person can get from blowing things up.

Valkyrie never read any of her book with Ace, but it's still there, tucked away safely in the base of her bag. Next to the hat.

* * *

When she comes across the grave of Tanith Low, she supposes that she shouldn't be shocked. Everyone she knows is dead. Why not add Tanith to the list?  
After all, it's in her name. _Valkyrie. _One of the warrior women that deliver the souls of the fallen heroes from the battlefield. That's who she is. A survivor. An angel of death.

Valkyrie finds a red poppy, and places it on Tanith's grave, and then takes Skulduggery's hat out, and puts it next to it.

"So much death," says a sing-song voice, airy and carefree. "So much death. How do you stand it."

Valkyrie turns. A girl is sitting on a nearby fence, her hair loose and hanging around her face.

"Clarabelle," Valkyrie says. "What are you doing here?"

She looks at her. "What are any of us doing here? Why do we exist?" She pauses. "To see where I'm going, I suppose. To see my future. Do I_ have _a future?"

Clarabelle is always odd. But Valkyrie thinks that she could be a bit less strange in the middle of the apocalypse.

"Where are Scapegrace and Thrasher?" Valkyrie asks instead.

Clarabelle's eyes become unfocused. "They're gone. Away. Far away."

Valkyrie tries not to react. _They're dead. _"I'm sorry," she says instead.

"I'm going too," the girl says confidentially, as if she's telling some big secret. Then she laughs.

Valkyrie swallows. "No, Clarabelle, you don't have to go yet. There's still things to live for."

She nods. "That's true. But there's also things to die for."

Valkyrie is puzzled, even if she doesn't show it.

"I know a man," Clarabelle says. "He's amazing. He burns through the universe like starfire. He's everything. He will be my best friend. He is my best friend. He was my best friend. I'll die for him. I'm dying for him. I already have died for him." She shakes her head, as if to clear it. "So many lives. I've lived so many lives."

She looks properly at Valkyrie for the first time. "Valkyrie. You're amazing, you do know that? Tell Skulduggery I said that."

"Clarabelle," Valkyrie says softly. "He's dead."

She smiles in a way that makes her seem ethereal. "Oh, no. He's not dead. He's coming back. Soon."

She slips backwards off the fence, still smiling, and hits the ground. Her eyes close.

A red stain is spreading over her chest. Valkyrie dashes over. "Clarabelle!"  
"Sorry, Valkyrie," she says. "Tell him. Tell him that you're amazing."

"Don't die, dammit!" In vain, she presses at the wound in Clarabelle's chest. "What happened?"

Her eyes flicker open. "Some people were slightly too trigger happy." They shut again.

"My god, Clarabelle... I'm so sorry..."

"Don't be. It's not your fault." She breathes deeply in, turning over onto her side. Her last words are so soft that Valkyrie isn't even sure if she heard them.

"_Run, you clever boy... and remember me..._"

Valkyrie constructs extra walls around her heart, and continues on.

* * *

She travels with no purpose. She can't think of anything except Skulduggery's last words and the promise from the Doctor that it'll be all right.

She believes him, because he's the Doctor, and he's like. Skulduggery. She believes him, even though she can't imagine how it possibly will be. It's 2009, and the world has ended.

It's getting late, so she settles down in a comfy patch of dirt to rest. She pulls out her book. It's bedraggled and worn after being read so many times, but she still loves it.

She fingers the loopy handwriting at the beginning. _Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul_.

Where's hope now?

Somewhere deep inside her, waiting to be let free again. In the place where she's wrapped armour tightly around her heart. And she's not going to open that up again.

She hears footsteps behind her, and curls up because she _knows _those footsteps and they're not real, he's gone.

"Valkyrie," says the soft voice of Skulduggery Pleasant.

"Go away," she whimpers, almost breaking but not quite.

"No."

He sits directly in front of her, and even though she knows it, she swipes a hand out to touch him. It goes straight through, and she drops it. "You're not real."

"No. But you already knew that."

She nods, and curls up into a tiny little ball. "I wish you were really here."

"I wish I was here too."

She laughs bitterly. "How can you? You're just a hallucination."

"Even so, I do." He tilts his head to look at her. "You gave away my hat."

"I put it on Tanith's grave."

He nods. "Fair enough." He pauses. "Do you want me to sing to you?"

She shakes her head. That would be too much right now.

"Do you want me to tell you a bedtime story?" Without waiting for a response, the imaginary Skulduggery takes an imaginary copy of her book out from his jacket pocket, and begins to read to her. "_Many respectable physicists said that they weren't going to stand for this - partly because it was a debasement of science, but mostly because they didn't get invited to those sort of parties._"

His velvet voice, although imaginary (she reminds herself) is soothing. She falls asleep instantly.

* * *

She's been counting down the days. Ever since Martha told her what she had to do, she's been counting. She hasn't lost count once, even in the moments when she was out of her mind.

There are five minutes left.

"I'll do it for both of us," she whispers to the conspicuously absent Skulduggery. "And then, maybe something will change."

She wants her parents back, she wants Alice back, she wants Ace and Clarabelle and Ghastly and Tanith and China back. She even wants Thrasher and Scapegrace back.

And most of all, she _wants Skulduggery back. _She wants him here, aloof and arrogant, and making snarky comments at her, and _alive, _as alive as a skeleton can be.

"Maybe something will change," she repeats, and it's a hope.

_Five... four... three... two... one..._

"Doctor," she says and thinks, and thinks it harder. "_Doctor. DOCTOR!_"

And for a while, nothing happens.

And then something does.

Everything changes.

And the clock turns back.

And she's falling...

falling...

_falling..._

* * *

Sometimes Valkyrie Cain cries, and she doesn't know why. Sometimes she'll look at her parents and a tear will fall down her cheek.

Sometimes she hugs Ghastly so ferociously that he's knocked off his feet, which is a hard thing to do to a boxer. And she'll apologize and say she didn't know why she just did that.

One day she sees a copy of a certain book in her room, and she doesn't know where it had come from. But inside is an inscription that says _To Valkyrie Cain. Hope is the thing with feathers- That perches in the soul- And sings the tunes without the words- And never stops-at all._

It means something to her, although she can't remember quite what.

That book is her favorite now, apart from the books by her uncle.

One day she looks directly at Skulduggery, and tells him that she's amazing.

He sounds puzzled. "I know that already."

She notices a tear, silvery and rippling, making its way down her nose. She reaches up; catches it with a fingertip and lets it drop to the ground.

"Why am I crying?" she wonders aloud.

"Because you've seen and been through horrible things," Skulduggery tells her. "And some part of you remembers it."

She brushes away the tears that are now streaking down her face, unbidden. "How do you know?"

He pulls her into a hug, even as she slides down to the floor, crying for no apparent reason. "I was there."

"Why can't I _remember?_" she sobs.

"You don't want to," he tells her. And because he's Skulduggery, she believes him.

It's 2008. The world is not ending.

Maybe, just maybe, everything will be alright.

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed my little jaunt into this world. The poem in Valkyrie's book is by**** Emily Dickinson, and is called 'Hope'. The book itself is by Douglas Adams, and is 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. It's amazingly funny, and I could completely see the Doctor giving it to Valkyrie. **

**The title, of course, is from Gordon's book that he died writing. It somehow seemed appropriate. **

**This came about when I thought, Hey! Skulduggery Pleasant warfic!**

**And then, EVERYONE DIES**

**And then, TARDIS!**

**And after a lot of work, I got this.**

**If you enjoyed, leave a review. If you didn't, tell me what I got wrong, in a review.**

**Kitty**


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